“Good! Stay here until I come back or call you; I'm going to talk to these fellows. But if you value your life, don't YOU speak nor stir.” He strode quickly through the intervening trees and stepped out into the moonlight. A suppressed shout greeted him, and half a dozen mounted men, masked and carrying rifles, rode down towards him, but he remained quietly waiting there, and as the nearest approached him, he made a step forward and cried, “Halt!” The men pulled up sharply and mechanically at that ring of military imperiousness. “What are you doing here?” said Courtland. “We reckon that's OUR business, co'nnle.” “It's mine, when you're on property that I control.” The man hesitated and looked interrogatively towards his fellows. “I allow you've got us there, co'nnle,” he said at last with the lazy insolence of conscious power, “but I don't mind telling you we're wanting a nigger about the size of your Cato. We hain't got anything agin YOU, co'nnle; we don't want to interfere with YOUR property, and YOUR ways, but we don't calculate to have strangers interfere with OUR ways and OUR customs. Trot out your nigger--you No'th'n folks don't call HIM 'property,' you know--and we'll clear off your land.” “And may I ask what you want of Cato?” said Courtland quietly. “To show him that all the Federal law in h-ll won't protect him when he strikes a white man!” burst out one of the masked figures, riding forward. “Then you compel me to show YOU,” said Courtland immovably, “what any Federal citizen may do in the defense of Federal law. For I'll kill the first man that attempts to lay hands upon him on my property. Some of you, who have already tried to assassinate him in cold blood, I have met before in less dishonorable warfare than this, and THEY know I am able to keep my word.” There was a moment's silence; the barrel of the revolver he was holding at his side glistened for an instant in the moonlight, but he did not move. The two men rode up to the first speaker and exchanged words. A light laugh followed, and the first speaker turned again to Courtland with a mocking politeness. “Very well, co'nnle, if that's your opinion, and you allow we can't follow our game over your property, why, we reckon we'll have to give way TO THOSE WHO CAN. Sorry to have troubled YOU. Good-night.” He lifted his hat ironically, waved it to his followers, and the next moment the whole party were galloping furiously towards the high road.